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PETER PINDAR'S ANNUITY.

J. P., in Current Notes, 1854, p. 92, asks, What was the Doctor's annuity? It was 250 pounds. The circumstances are thus related by the late William West, who died recently in Charter House, in his eightyfourth year.

Dr. John Wolcot made an immense sum by his ings, which commenced with his Epistle to the Reviewers, published by the Egertons in 1783. His subsequent publisher was George Kearsley, who brought out his rapidly produced poems in quarto, with spirited etchings, for several years, until Evans took them up, when they formed an immense quarto volume. The sale had been prodigious, and as Peter, like many other poets, had not been the most provident or prudent of that class, the purchase of his works became an object of speculation with Robinson, and his brother-in-law, Walker, who entered into a treaty to grant an annuity for his published works, and on certain conditions for his unpublished ones, which is thus accurately described in the Doctor's own style.

FORFARSHIRE TRADITIONS.

THE following Scottish ballad illustrates a tradition having reference to the parish of Pert, now united to that of Logy, in the north-eastern part of Forfarshire; and also embodies some superstitions of the same lowrit-cality, with respect to the supposed power of conjuring or laying ghosts. It is however becoming obsolete by the removal of many of the old families of the district, and ere long may possibly pass out of memory. By some of the older folks, it is thus narrated:-A simple herd-boy having excited the ire of the laird of Pert, the latter, a powerful man, flung the unconscious victim of his anger among a cairn of stones, and killed him. The circumstances having caused some inquiry, the laird to exculpate himself charged one of his own ploughmen with the perpetration of the murder; for which in those days, when might was right, he was hanged accordingly. The fact was however traditionally transmitted, and the particulars related in the ballad obtained a general belief among the peasantry, that the spirit of the boy was emancipated, and the laird, in consequence of the conjurations of the miller, for a time wandered under the murky cloud of night, between the kirk of Pert, and an old ford in the river below the North-water bridge. All the events related by the rhymer, were formerly in very general belief.

While this treaty was pending, Wolcot had an attack of asthma, which he did not conceal or palliate, but at meetings of the parties his asthma always interrupted the business. A fatal result was of course anticipated, and instead of a sum of money, an annuity of 250l. a year was preferred. Soon after the bond was signed the Doctor went into Cornwall, where he recovered his health, and returned to London without any cough, which was far from being a pleasing sight to the persons who had to pay his annuity. One day he called on John Walker, the manager for the parties, who surveying him with a scrutinizing eye, asked him how he did? "Much better, thank you," said Wolcot, "I have taken measure of my asthma; the fellow is troublesome, but I know his strength, and am his master." Oh !" said Walker gravely, and turned into an adjoining room, where Mrs. Walker, a prudent woman, had been listening to the conversation. Wolcot, aware of the feeling, while paying a strict attention to the husband and wife, heard the latter exclaim, "There now, did'nt I tell you, he would'nt die."

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A plea was then set up that the agreement extended to all future productions as well as the past, and on this ground an action was commenced, but was subsequently compromised. The Doctor, as he told me, had no idea the Paternoster Row booksellers should drink all their wine out of his skull; that he was aware the fellows were playing cards upon his coffin-lid, and exclaimed, that as

Care to our Coffin adds a nail no doubt, While ev'ry grin so merry draws one out, he regretted that he did not add a little more to his income by coughing a little more. Wolcot enjoyed the joke, and outlived both parties. R. T.

CHARLES BEST, Current Notes, p. 20; noticed by Ritson, as a poet of the sixteenth century, has several Sonnets and Odes in Davison's Poetical Rhapsody, 1602, 8vo.

The old kirk of Pert so prominent in the ballad, is now a picturesque ruin upon the banks of the North Esk, not unlike that of 'auld haunted' Alloway on the Doon, eternised in the memorable lines of Robert Burns. The locality has otherwise many attractions, both historical and literary. At Burnroot, a few paces south of the upper North-water bridge, was born in a humble cottage, James Mill, the historian of India; a drawing of his birth-place, with some further notices, may be expected for Current Notes. Brechin, April 11. A. J.

THE PERJURED LAIRD'S DOOM.
Whane'er the gowden sun gade doun,
An' gloomie ev'nin' fell;
Frae fireless flame of azure hue,
By the foot o'Pert's kirke bell;
Ane winsome boy there wont to come,
With slaeblack eyne an' hair;
His cheiks an' lips were deadlie pale,
An' feet an' breast were bare.
Thoch' lang atween the kirke an' furd,
This sprite awand'rin' went,
Nae livin' either heard its tale,
Or cause of mourning kent.

But ae dark nichte's ane miller chiel'
Had langst the road to go,
The lad kept rinnin' by his side,
Lamentin' o'er his wo.

An' whan they reacht the kirkeyard style,
He cry'd-"O list to me;

An' set ane harmless murdert boy,
Frae lanelie wand'rin' free!"

The sturdie miller aft heard tell

That sic a sprite was seen; Thoch laith to bide ane ghastlie ca', At last he's courage ta'en,

An' 'bout himsell wi' hazell staff,

He made ane roundlie score;

Then said "Ma lad, in name o' Gude,*
What doe ye wander for ?"

The laddie ga'e ane eldritch screech-
Ane wulsome luik an' bauld;
An' aye's he spak the thunder roll'd,

An' fire-flauchts ne'er devaul'd.

"There, there's the cairn!" the laddie screamt, "Whare life was ta'en frae me;

For whilk ane guiltless hireman died
Hie on yon wither'd tree-
Whase life the murd'rer swore awa,
To save's ain infamie:

"But, ho!" mair shrillie cried the boy,
With eye on lordlie grave;
"Come forth thou perjur'd laird o' Pert,
Thy name it winna save!

"Not all thy gifts to hallie kirke,
Or alms thou did'st bestow,
Will lay the clouds o' sin an' shame
That round thy mem'rie flow!"

On this ane grizzlie form appear'd,

An' frae the kirke wa' hied

"Ah! there's the murd'rous laird o' Pert!"
The laddie tremblin' cried.

The hoarie sprite was mute, an' fain
Wad been to whence it came;

But aye's it near'd the darksome grave,
There rose a smoth'rin' flame;

An' wi' that flame, frae hallie kirke

The laird's rich gifts were thrown; While sprites of ancient kith an' kin, A' sang this waefu' tone

"Sin' Heav'n denies thee an' thy wealth,
Sae surelie too shall we:

For thoch thou be our ain brither,
We hate all perjurie!

"An' frae our fam'lie toumbe for aye,
Thy name it shall be ta'en;
An' but in page of blude an' shame,
Nae trace o' thee'll be seen!"

Bereft of friends an' hopes of peace,
With grief the laird was pain'd;

His sprite flew here, an' then flew there,
An' peace it ne'er obtain'd;

In the art of laying ghaists,' this is ever an important precautionary proceeding, because it is superstitiously yet absurdly believed, that if the conjurer describe the circle in the name of the Deity, no spirit can enter it, but, if that particular be neglected, the circle is made in vain, and there are then a thousand to one chances of his being attacked by the spirits, and deprived of life.

Till frae the Esk ane frichtsome fiend,
With joyful clamour flies;
An' fondly graspt the laird, as gin
He'd been his wedded prize!

An' just's they fled, a siller cloud
Drew round the guiltless boy,
That bore him frae this land of woe;
To shades of heav'nlie joy!
But frae that irksome nichte, I trow,
The miller was sad an' lane:
An' in the joviall house of mirth
Again he ne'er was seen.

CONSTABLE'S PICTURE,

THE WHITE HORSE." IN 1819, when Constable's art was never more perfect, or perhaps never so perfect as at this period of his life; he exhibited at the Royal Academy, the largest and most important work he had yet produced, "A scene on the river Stour," since designated from a white horse in a barge near the fore-ground "Constable's White Horse." Deservedly it attracted more attention than any other painting he had before presented at that exhibition. In his letter to Archdeacon Fisher, July 17th in that year, we learn, "The price I have put on my large landscape is one hundred guineas, exclusive of the frame; it has served a good apprenticeship in the Academy, and I shall work a good deal upon it before it goes to the British Gallery." The distinction this picture obtained for Constable, caused his being elected in November following an Associate of the Academy. The Archdeacon congratulated the artist on his honourable election, and confirmed his sincerity of the compliment by purchasing his picture of "the White Horse." Constable appears to have retained it some time for effecting his finishing touches, which he appears to have accomplished in the spring of 1820. The Archdeacon's letter, dated Salisbury, April 27, joyously intimates"The White Horse has arrived safe; it is hung on a level with the eye, the frame resting on the ogee moulding, in a western side-light, right for the light in the picture. It looks magnificently. My wife says she carries her eye from the picture to the garden and back again, and observes the same sort of look in both. I have shewn it to no one, and intend to say nothing about it, but leave it to people to find it out, and make their own remarks."

The White Horse was to Constable on many accounts the most important picture he ever painted, and certainly one of the finest. In a letter written to Miss Gubbins, at a late period of his life, he noticed it, as one of my happiest efforts on a large scale, being a placid representation of a serene grey morning in summer."

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In Leslie's Memoirs of Constable, printed in 1845, he speaks of the picture being then in the possession of L. Archer Burton, Esq. of the Woodlands, in Hampshire. On Saturday, March 31, it was sold at Messrs. Christie and Manson's for six hundred guineas.

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BAAL-ZEPHON: THE GOD OF THE NORTH. Was it the shout of storms, that rent the sky? The rush of many a whirlwind from its lair?

Or, be the fierce Maozzim* loose on high?

The old Gods of the North: the Demons of the Air? Those Tartar Hills! billowy with writhing menThat yelling Euxine! throttled with her dead: Yon quiv'ring air! as thick with ghosts as when The sever'd souls of Syrian armiest fled! Ah! fatal field, ah! doom'd and deadly Sea, Where be the hosts of God, that ancient band? Michael the Prince,‡ and Uriel, where are ye, That once did valiantly for English Land? Shun ye the flaunting Crescent's baleful sign, The circumcised hordes of vile Mahound: Or, is the Red Cross banner loath to shine

Where Scythian fiends beset the shuddering ground. Lords of the vassal-air, the lightning tongue,

The harness'd Fires, with Footsteps like the Storm; Where is your vaunt, and what your strength, among Those Riders of the Cloud, with battle warm? Sound the stern Signal! summon Sea and Shore, Clothe many a steed with thunder for the war; An Angel, standing at a cottage door,

To guard a peasant's child, is mightier far.

O for the Sigil! or the chanted spell

The Pentacle, that demons know and dread;

So should Maozzim flee with baffled yell,

And the lull'd Euxine smooth its billowy bed. Arise, O Lord! stretch forth thy red right hand : Smite the strong Dragon and his Scythian thrall; God visible among the Nations stand, And bid the recreant Russ thy banish'd Name§ recall. Morwenstow, Nov. 14, 1854.

R. S. HAWKER.

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BELL MARKS.-You would confer a favour on students in Campanology, a very increasing section by the bye, if you would allow the accompanying devices to embellish your papers. A notice of them has already appeared in another similar periodical, Notes and Queries, Vol. XI. p. 100. By giving these publicity, other bells similarly marked may be discovered by some of your readers. These are from a bell at Lansellos, in Cornwall, but I have seen the same at Newcastle-uponTyne, and on bells at Oxford and in Wiltshire.

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The article in Notes and Queries, referred to by our Correspondent, states "The tower of Lansallos church contains the fragments of two bells scattered on the floor of the belfry; while a third, still hanging, barely serves to notify the hour of service to the inhabitants of the adjoining hamlet. There is nothing remarkable in the shape or size of the bell, but it bears the words in an old black letter character:

Sancta Margareta ora pro nobis,

and also three coats of arms, which I will attempt to describe. "The first is a chevron between three fleurs-de-lys. The second is an octagonal shield, charged with a very curious crosslett. The third is a chevron between three remarkable looking vessels with spouts, more like the modern coffeepots than any thing I know besides. The tinctures, if there were any, are obliterated.

"This bell, I have thought, may be coeval with the reedification of the church, which was dedicated to St. Ildierna, or Hyldren, October 16, 1331."

The rubbings kindly forwarded by Mr. Ellacombe, show these coats to be sunk in the surface of the bell, and an examination of them induces the following remarks, which are respectfully submitted.

On the first coat, the three objects, supposed to represent fleurs-de-lys, or trefoils, would seem rather to be hawthorn trees, and are thus suggestive of the arms being those of Treffry of Treffry in Lanhidrock in Cornwall, and subsequently also of Place in Fowey-sab. a chevron between three hawthorn trees, arg. The elder branch of this family became extinct by the death of John Treffry in 1658.

The second coat appears to pertain to the family of Decling, in Devonshire-arg. a chevron between three ewers, sab. What connexion, if any between those families existed, is unknown to the writer.

The device impressed between these coats, and described by Mr. Couch and by Mr. Ellacombe as a crosslet, appears to have eluded their notice as being simply a double monogram of the founder's initials, H. K., these letters being affixed to the extremities or points of a plain cross +. Ed.

LEGENDS ON BELLS.- On the first or leading bell in Wellcombe Church, in Devonshire, are the lines:

WHEN I BEGIN-LET ALL STRIKE IN.

On a bell in North Tamerton Church, Cornwall, melted and recast about 1829

IESV FVLFIL WITH THY GOOD GRACE,
ALL THAT WE BECKON TO THIS PLACE.
R. S. HAWKer.

Morwenstow, April 2.

RUSSIAN PROFANENESS.

THE common people of Russia, although not civilized, are nevertheless of a docile disposition, and when they disapprove of their superiors, convey their remonstrances not in the bold coarseness of the Englishman, or the malignant petulancy of the Frenchman, but in a manner, conceived by them, to tell with the most pointed effect. In one of their former wars with the Turks, Prince Gallitzin rendered himself very unpopular with his countrymen, who composed the following allegory, in which the highest compliment was intended to Count Munich, and the most pointed reproach to the Prince. The following is a literal translation.

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The Song of the Midwatch, though ascribed to R. B. Sheridan, is of very doubtful appropriation. Bannister sang it in the musical entertainment entitled, "the Glorious First of June," performed on July 2, for the benefit of the widows and orphans of those who fell in Earl Howe's naval Cobb was the ostensible author of the Victories, in 1794.

The Almighty was enjoying himself in sleep-a great voice was heard in heaven, and the Almighty awoke. piece, Sheridan lent some aid to the dialogue, while the Duke of Leeds, Lord Mulgrave, and some others, contributed He called unto the angel Gabriel and said, "The Turks and the Russians are going to war. My beloved Rus- Songs. Kelly, in his Reminiscences, vol. ii. p. 70, states, "Storace and myself gave it some new songs, but the sians, who commands them?" Gabriel replied, "Count music was chiefly old. It was all got up in three days." Munich." Then the Almighty said, "I am satisfied;" Adolphus asserts, the piece "was so hastily prepared, that he turned round and went to sleep. On a sudden a a portion of it had been performed whilst another was not greater noise was heard in heaven, when God awoke yet written.” The writer is aware, it is in Dr. Gauntlett's and again called the angel Gabriel, and said, "What revised version, as published by Lonsdale, attributed to noise is that?" Gabriel then said, "the Russians and Sheridan, and the music to Thomas Linley; but Cobb most the Turks are at war." Ed. "Oh! my beloved Russians- probably was the writer, not Dibdin. who now leads them to battle?" "Prince Gallitzin."

Then the Almighty said, "Give me my boots, for I must go myself."

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Memoirs of John Bannister, vol. i. p. 343.

CHURCHYARDS. In reference to the enquiry by SPES, Current Notes, p. 24, it may be observed, the North side is included in the same consecration with the rest of the ground; all within the boundary, and the boundary itself is alike hallowed in sacred and secular law. It is because of the doctrine of the Regions which has descended unbrokenly in the Church, that an evil repute rests in the northern parts. The East, from whence the Son of Man came, and who will come again from the Orient to judgment, was and is, His own especial realm. The dead lie with their feet and faces turned eastwardly, ready to stand up before the approaching Judge. The West was called the Galilee, the region of the people. The South, the Home of the Noonday, was the typical domain of Heavenly Things; but the North, the ill-omened North, was the peculiar haunt of evil spirits and the Dark Powers of the air. Satan's door stood in the north wall, opposite to the font, and was duly opened at the exorcism of Baptism for the egress of the Fiend. When our Lord lay in the sepulchre, it was with feet towards the East, so that his right hand gave benediction to the South, and his left hand reproached and repelled the North. When the evil spirits were cast out by the voice of the Messiah, they fled evermore northward. The God of the North was Baalzephon. They say that at the North Pole there stands the awful gate, which none may approach and live, and which leads to the central depths of penal fire. Morwenstow. R. S. HAWKER.

POPE'S LAST hours.

DURING Pope's last illness, his two physicians, Dr. Barton and Dr. Thomson had an altercation. The former charged Dr. Thomson with having hastened the poet's death by the violent purges he had prescribed, a crimination which Dr. Barton retorted. Pope at length silenced them by saying,-"Gentlemen, I only learn by your discourse that I am in a very dangerous way, all therefore I have now to ask is, that after my death, the following may be added to the next edition of the Dunciad, by way of postscript—

Dunces rejoice, forgive all censures past; The greatest dunce has kill'd your foe at last. Others say these lines were written by Dr. Barton, and were the occasion of the following epigram by a friend of Dr. Thomson.—

As physic and verse both to Phoebus belong,
So the College oft dabble in potion and song:
Hence Barton resolv'd his emetics shall hit,
When his recipes fail gives a puke with his wit.

E. H.

THAMES.-Can any reader of Current Notes inform me where the following line occurs

And all the liquid world is one extended Thames.

I have seen it attributed to Cowley, but cannot find it in his works? Birmingham. J. H. S.

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Hatton, in his New View of London, printed in 1707, P. 604, notices Exeter Exchange, so called from being The ground situate in the place where Exeter House was. thereon by Dr. Barbon, a very great builder; this I am told was held of the Earl upon lease, and the Exchange was built the Doctor mortgaged to the Duke of Devonshire and Sir Francis Child, who now receive the rents, and the said Earl has the ground rents. Here are about forty-eight shops below, let to milliners, and room for as many more above, where much is in the occupation of the Company of Upholsters.

Richard Blome, in his Collections for enlarging Stow's Survey, compiled before 1700, describing Exeter 'Change as it then appeared, observes

"This Exchange contains two walks below stairs, and as liners, hosiers, etc., the builders judging it would come into many above, with shops on each side for sempsters, milgood repute, but it received a check in its infancy, I suppose, by those of the New Exchange, so that instead of growing into better esteem, it became worse and worse; insomuch that the shops in the first walk next the street can hardly meet with tenants, those backwards lying useless, and those above converted into other uses."

Strype's edition, 1720, book IV. p. 119. The upper room in the remembrance of many, had long been a popular Exhibition of Animals from all parts of the World, originally established by George Pidcock. The last occupant was the late Mr. Edward Cross, who died a few months since near to the Surrey Zoological Gardens. On the demolishing of the 'Change in August, 1829, the date was over the principal window at the east end-EXETER 'CHANGE, 1676; its length was forty paces, and its site extended from the western wall of the Pit entrance to the Lyceum Theatre, to the middle of the road way in Burleigh Street, abutting on the south over two-thirds of the present roadway in the Strand,

HOYLE. What are the arms of the family of Hoyle or Hoile, and whence does the name originate? Is it derived from the immense sand-bank at the mouth of the Mersey, off the coast of Cheshire, called Hoyle bank, and the hamlet close to it, called Hoylake? If so, where can I find any account of it?

Is there a place or family of that name in Brabant, or Flanders; if so, where is there any account of them extant?

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